Having said this, Brazilian rosewood has never been without its problems.  Only a few trees grow straight; others twist and turn while growing, producing wood that can get pretty heavily figured, even gnarled. This can produce stresses and fissures that are sometimes difficult to spot in an unfabricated set. A variety of bugs and worms love the stuff and bore around in the living trees to get their share. All this adds up to more work (and often more grief) for the luthier and a higher risk of cracks and warping for the guitarist.

Add to this CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). Ah, CITES, intended to keep Dalbergia nigra (that's the botanical name for Brazilian rosewood) from extinction, but probably destined to assure that very fate.  (Who besides governments wants to protect living things that are economically worthless because they are illegal to harvest.) It's still legal to use wood harvested before June 11, 1992, and a guitar with Brazilian rosewood parts can still be exported if the shipment is accompanied by documentation testifying to it's provenance (nearly impossible to obtain), but no living Brazilian rosewood trees may be harvested, none. What has happened to the price of Brazilian rosewood? You guessed it: it's soared.

A few suppliers have tried going back to the remnants of old forests in Brazil and harvesting Brazilian rosewood stumps, some of which have been in the ground for decades. Stumps, you say! Actually, what they're after is the taproot. It's all legal under CITES because no living trees are being murdered. This wood is in a state of seasoning much like it would have been if it had come from logs growing above ground. The wood is still wet when it is harvested, but the moisture is intra-cellular and dries out quickly. Some of these sets are very excellent in their aesthetic and technical luthiery merits. There's just one problem: the cost of recovering this wood in a quality level suitable for guitars is extremely high. For this reason, suppliers have all but deserted this market.

If only we could say Brazilian rosewood makes guitars sound better. Many guitarists, including some highly respected ones, are absolutely convinced it does, but, folks, I'm just as convinced it isn't so, and unlike most guitarists I've actually made an attempt to test this with some rigor (see Tone Variables in Guitar Construction (http://www.pjguitar.com/article4.htm)).

In spite of all this (because of it?...!), some guitarists still insist on guitars made of Brazilian rosewood. Sorry, I'm just not willing to struggle with the Brazilian dearth any more, and you diehard folks really need to get real and take a serious look at the alternatives. Indian rosewood, Brazilian's top competitor for many years, has none of the drawbacks of Brazilian: it is straight-grained, bughole-free, very stable and, if fabricated under proper humidity conditions, virtually immune to cracking. Indian rosewood is on average about 10% lower in density (which I regard as a significant tone variable) than Brazilian, but by careful selection I can come up with Indian sets which are well into the Brazilian density range.

A more recent arrival among Brazilian rosewood alternatives on the guitar backs/sides market is Madagascar rosewood. This wood, like Indian rosewood, is currently in plentiful supply of very high quality. It's appearance and physical characteristics are uncannily similar to Brazilian: the density range is almost exactly the same, it's typical color is like the Brazilian rosewood of the brick-red color way. Its typical figuring is a dead ringer for Brazilian, sometimes including even the "webbing" often associated with Brazilian, but it is less prone to the kind of tree-twist figure which often creates instability. There are far fewer worm- and bugholes. The trees tend to be somewhat small, which means that sets for larger guitars typically have three- or four-piece backs (which presents no construction problem with today's adhesive technology), but two-piece backs continue to be available for classicals. In every respect, Madagascar rosewood is the most attractive and acoustically ideal replacement for Brazilian to be found anywhere.